A personal media broadcaster (e.g., a SLINGBOX product created by Sling Media of Foster City, Calif.) is any device or other system that allows a user to access media items from various media sources at remote locations. The media sources are typically coupled to the personal media broadcaster to feed audio/video (“AV”) signals of the media item from the media source to the personal media broadcaster. The personal media broadcaster converts the A/V signal into a datastream suitable for transmission over a network. The user can receive the datastream at remote locations and access the media item using a client device including software or hardware components that operate in conjunction with the personal media broadcaster.
While accessing the media item on the client device, a user may want to store the media items for later viewing on the client device or for sharing the media item with other people. If the user wants to share the media item, the user may clip and send the media item to a server via a network. After the clipped media item is uploaded to the server, other people may log onto the server via the network and access the media item. Various systems may be developed to take advantage of the clipped media items stored on the server. One example of such a system would involve sending advertisements together with the media file from the server. The advertisements may then become a source of revenue for the service operator.
In some cases it may be advantageous to store attributes or the identity of the media item together with the media item itself on the client device or the server. The attributes of the media item may include, among other information, the name of the network broadcasting the media item, the time the media item was broadcasted, the title of the media item, the genre of the media item, episode number, content advisory and rating information, program synopsis, copy control advisory, the identity of the key players in the program, and/or other information as appropriate. These attributes may be used to uniquely identify the media item. By storing the identity or attributes of the media item, various value-added services (e.g., more convenient and efficient search and retrieval of the media items) may be implemented on the server. Further, by storing the identity or attributes of the media item, unauthorized distribution of a copyrighted or other protected media item may be blocked. In order to prevent unwanted distribution of the media item, however, the identity or attributes of the media item must typically be first determined to check if the media item is protected.
Users, however, may find it inconvenient and time-consuming to manually indicate the identity or attributes of the media item after selecting, editing or clipping the media item for storing or sharing. Even if the server requests entry of the identity or the attributes of the media item for storage or sharing, the users may simply omit the identity or attributes of the media item or enter false identity or attributes of the media item. Such incorrect or false identity or attributes may become an issue in providing the value-added servers or blocking distribution of the copyrighted media items.
It is therefore desirable to create systems and techniques for automatically determining attributes of media items accessed via a personal media broadcaster or the like. Various desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.